Invention of the Art of Drawing

A number of Bruges painters earned international renown during the neoclassical period, forming what might justly be called a Bruges school of Neoclassicism. Joseph B. Suv�e even won the Prix de Rome, beating Jacques-Louis David into second place. He later became a member of the Acad�mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris and director of the Acad�mie de France in Rome. It was largely thanks to his efforts as a teacher in Paris and Rome that a succession of former pupils of the Bruges Academy were able to embark on international careers.

In the painting traditionally titled The invention of the Art of Drawing, Suv�e tells the well-known story of the daughter of the Greek potter Butades, who draws the shadow silhouette of her lover. This rational, balanced composition can be seen as a symbolic illustration of the Platonic aesthetic theory that underpinned classical art - art as shade of reality.